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Ashley Smith's vilification begins

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The story of Ashley Smith’s heroism was bound to annoy some journalists as being too pat, too unbelievable, too much of a redemptive ending in a story of carnage and mayhem. Lee Siegel, television critic of The New Republic, raises some fair questions about whether Smith’s story should be accepted uncritically, although reporters will have a difficult time gaining access to her captor, Brian Nichols, for some time to come.


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Common-law polygamy?

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Here’s an interesting commentary from a reader: “Does the Schiavo case implicitly, or maybe explicitly, acknowledge the validity of polygamy? . . . I saw a lawyer on the news last night going down a laundry list of Terri’s decisions and rights, and, to my knowledge, all of this flows from her husband speaking on her behalf. If Mrs. Schiavo II could sue him now for wife-like rights should they separate, the state is honoring polygamy.” The state of Florida does not recognize what in some places is still called Common Law Marriage. But a decade or so and two children? What legal status does Michael’s live-in almost-wife have, in the eyes of the state? Meanwhile, Kathleen Parker asks another question: “When is a husband not a husband?”


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There is no St. Nicholas . . .

At least not in Demre, Turkey. This is the depressing bottom line in Karl Vick’s sad, sad story in the Washington Post. The headline captures the relentless march of the shopping mall into parts of the world that, at least historically speaking, ought to know better: “Turkish Town Exchanges St. Nick for Santa.” But there is hope, in the shape of tourism dollars. “The demotion of the real Saint Nicholas did not go unnoticed. offended parties include Russian Orthodox tourists who venerated the saint made the patron of their homeland by Czar Alexander II; the sculptor, also Russian, who donated the bronze statue five years ago; tour operators who pitch Demre as part of a tour of Turkey’s religious history; and an assortment of bystanders who see the town’s elevation of Santa over Nicholas as the ultimate commercialization of, if not Christmas, something dignified and sacred.” Amen.


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Divided GOP tent

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What we have here, once again, is another hint at the divide inside the GOP between what White House scribe Michael Gerson described a few months ago as a consistently Catholic approach to public life and the Libertarian approach to social issues. The Holy Week (in the West) drama of the Terri Schiavo case is merely underlining what is already obvious. Here is New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney’s crunch quote, with another use of the soon-to-be omnipresent T-word: “My party is demonstrating that they are for states’ rights unless they don’t like what states are doing,” said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut. . . . “This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy,” Mr. Shays said. The article contains only one clear quote making a case for the other side: “There’s a larger issue in play,” and Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, “and that is the whole issue of the definition of life. The issue of when is it a life is a broader issue than just a state defining that. I don’t think we can have 50 different definitions of life.”


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Sun-Sentinel finds some unity on faith, Schiavo

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Earlier this week, I suggested that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel might want to take another shot at covering some of the religious views involved in the culture war over Terri Schiavo’s future. In particular, the newspaper needed to rethink its own assertion that there is some question about Roman Catholicism’s teachings on death by starvation.


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